Experimenting with "vine-wrapping"...

I was busy at the market yesterday. I mentioned back in late September about taking a "vine-wrapped pendant" course from Judy Feskun through the Grand River Bead Society at our meeting in Guelph. I finally got Jan's undrilled lump of malachite wrapped and she flipped. The difficulty came because I had to hide a glob of glue that I was never able to completely sand off the top and while I'm not 100% sure I like what I came up with, Jan walked by my table at the market every hour or so muttering, "I love my pendant, I love my necklace." Always nice to get positive feedback!

Note the snowman earrings -- from last year.
White jadeite & red Swarovski crystal spacers with a matte black jet heishi hat.

What I really like is that Jan can wear the necklace with either side showing. She also likes that the necklace is longer so she can put the necklace on over her head without having to undo/do up the clasp (which is oversize anyway). I notice people have been commenting on the larger clasps I've been using -- some think they're overkill -- but then they become converts when they realise how easily the necklace or bracelet go on.

Because there was an extra bead from the original necklace, I started playing with vine-wrapping that in order to bulk it up a bit to use as a pendant for a second necklace I'm making to use up the rest of the 4mm malachite rounds I'd bought to lengthen the original necklace.

Every angle is different, and the wrapping hides the chewed-up bit on one side of the bead:

Note that this is the true colour of the malachite but while the wire looks like brass, it's actually bright copper. I'm still working on overcoming the weird light at the market.

Then I strung some pewter skulls with some extra beads left over from a restringing project to make a bracelet for one of my male customers:

And finally, here is the finished version of Winter's raven skull necklace (originally two separate projects) that we worked on over the course of a couple of Saturdays. I'm a big believer in sending people away to test-drive their jewellery for a few weeks and then come back for adjustments. Turns out she decided she wanted both necklaces to be combined into one (because she found she wears them both at the same time), plus she wanted a way to be able to add more stuff in the future (hence the large jump rings).

The necklace is adjustable for length in three ways: first, overall; then the shorter centre piece with the raku skull and body parts can be loosened off or tightened up; finally, the height of the raku skull cord relative to the overall necklace and raven skull can be changed by loosening off and moving a knot on either side of the main piece of leather cord.

For all you procrastinators, there's still time to order something for Christmas (I adhere to the Italian gift-giving date of January 6th on the Feast of the Epiphany so there's plenty of wiggle room) so contact me either by email or come and see me at the market on Saturday and we'll see what we can come up with.

Yo to procrastinating sig/others: I can't tell you how many ladies have told me what they hope their sig/other will get them for Christmas. A gift certificate or a promissory note for something from my table tucked into a card will make a great and perfect and stress-free gift. Just a suggestion/reminder/kick in the pants.

Thanks for looking!

Epiphany: Vine Pendant Wire-Wrapping Class with Judy Feskun...

Dontcha just love ah-hah moments?

For the past six or eight months, I've been seeing examples online incorporating all kinds of beads surrounding and offsetting a central/off-centre bead or cabochon, along with different styles and patterns of bead-weaving, the swooping, looping, layered complexity of which has basically been blowing my mind. I had resolved this year to shake up my hyper-symmetrical, balanced, linear mindset and was considering finally taking a class in something, anything, as my second step to New Stuff -- the question was where and when (my first step was watching and learning from my pal Nancy with her beautiful asymmetrical stringing). I do have several bead-weaving books, but I'm what they call an "experiential learner": I need to learn new things in person. I'm a dolt when it comes to following written directions.

To this end, I signed up to make a "Vine Pendant" at last night's Grand River Bead Society meeting in Guelph. I chose a sodalite pendant from the many offered, and copper wire was supplied in the kit. This is how mine turned out:

Front view:

Back view:

Side view:

Once you have the pendant wire-wrapped, the actual twining and vining is done with your fingers -- not with tools. I really did believe that all that random looping was done using round-nose pliers. Silly bobo. Temporary taping of wire(s) is also required. That was another duh moment for me.

Judy is the resident wire-wrapping instructor at Robert Hall Originals in St. George where for years I have been admiring the wire-wrapping examples on the class board. Unfortunately, I work at the times the classes are usually offered or I forget to sign up. For those of us into instant gratification, whose schedule prevents taking classes and/or who live several time zones away Judy sells tutorials from her website, but you can also find out about and sign up for upcoming classes held at Robert Hall Originals.

Okay, off to make more of these!

...oops, spoke too soon. I just got some typing in. Well, later, then.

Thanks for looking!